"Commander, please uphold your agreement to treat the officers, soldiers, and civilians well," Colonel Hänel said with a stiff face and a solemn tone.

Pu Guanshui did not wait for the translator to render the German into Chinese. He replied in Chinese, "We are the glorious Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army. we have our own discipline."

Colonel Hänel was somewhat surprised by the words conveyed by the translator. "May I ask what your discipline actually is?" He paused and added, "If it is convenient, could you speak directly in German?"

Pu Guanshui felt a bit conflicted. His current position was quite delicate. While speaking German wasn't impossible, he wondered if doing so would be inappropriate. Finally, he said with regret, "From my position, I must avoid trouble."

Upon hearing the translation, Colonel Hänel merely nodded slightly. It was understandable; it was not customary for a victorious army to use the language of the defeated. However, looking at Pu Guanshui, who was clearly proficient in both German and Chinese, Hänel felt a pang of jealousy. This man must have graduated from a German military academy. Although he had no certain proof, Colonel Hänel felt sure of it. Or perhaps he simply wanted to be sure—after all, surrendering to the Chinese was a deeply humiliating affair. Hänel would not have done so unless he had reached the end of his rope.

The garrison of the Qingdao fortress had never been large to begin with. First, most of the infantry had been transferred away, and then they had unexpectedly lost over 600 infantrymen. The fortress artillerymen were spread thin across the batteries, leaving insufficient troops to defend the complex of forts. Colonel Hänel had also made a mistake in his defense; he had assumed the People's Party would attempt a close-range artillery assault, but starting from the previous night, the People's Party had launched a fierce attack with infantry as the main force.

Even after the People's Party cut off the batteries on the northern and southern heights, Colonel Hänel did not believe they could win. The warships sent for reinforcements had already departed. As long as they could hold out for 48 hours—or even less—the returning warships could shell the People's Party troops from the sea, and the Germans would prevail.

But the People's Party had actually managed to capture three forts, which greatly exceeded Colonel Hänel's expectations. By morning, when it was light enough for the artillery to fire accurately, the observation results showed that the People's Party had not sent a large siege force. Within their field of vision, there was no target to bombard at will.

It was at this moment that grenades were shoved through the observation slits of the main fortress's iron gates. The women and children hiding inside screamed and wept in terror at the sound of the explosions. In fact, there were other observation slits, and the people inside knew there were only two Chinese infantrymen outside the gates. Once the German troops rushed out, those two would surely not survive.

But that was no longer meaningful. What would happen after killing those two? Since the gates could not be blocked, if the enemy used a large amount of explosives, the iron gates and the main fortress would still be doomed. Furthermore, the final battle would not last long. Once they resisted to the end, the women, children, and the remaining artillerymen—especially Colonel Hänel himself—would have no chance of survival in the chaotic fray.

At this juncture, Colonel Hänel displayed his Junker essence: he decisively chose to surrender. When his subordinates objected, Hänel questioned them on the grounds of the safety of the women and children, "What if the enemy rushes in and massacres them?"

Faced with such a morally weighted question, Hänel's subordinates ultimately obeyed the order to surrender.

Colonel Hänel's conscience urged him to accept the legitimacy of surrendering for the sake of protecting the women and children, while his reason sharply stimulated his sense of shame. For Hänel would never admit that while the safety of the women and children was secured, his own safety was also guaranteed.

However, Colonel Hänel's sense of shame was actually quite unnecessary. Looking back less than fifty years before 1911, Wilhelm I, the then King of Prussia, had spoken with a trembling voice when Bismarck urged him to fight the parliament bravely: "I know, they will chop off your head first, and then mine."

Prime Minister Bismarck had rebuked Wilhelm I: "Since death is certain, then die like a man on the field of struggle!"

Subsequently, Bismarck was forced to deliver a speech in parliament using crude language that the Junkers' intellect could grasp, though it was greatly beneath his status as a diplomat: "What Germany looks to is not Prussia's liberalism, but her power. Prussia must gather her forces and hold them in reserve for the favorable moment, which has already come and gone several times... The great questions of the day will not be settled by speeches and majority decisions... but by iron and blood."

In 1866, forty-five years before 1911, during the Austro-Prussian War, the Junker officer corps led by Wilhelm I had trembled in fear before the Austrian army, which represented German legitimacy. They believed victory was nearly impossible. Yet shortly after achieving victory, Wilhelm I and Moltke were shouting about marching into Vienna to seize the German crown.

At the end of World War I in 1919, in Chen Ke's original timeline, faced with Germany's inevitable defeat, Kaiser Wilhelm II could no longer find his generals on the front lines. The Junker officer corps seemed to have vanished from the Kaiser's sight into thin air. The Kaiser was forced to abdicate and flee Berlin in haste.

Twelve years before the Kaiser's desperate day in 1919, Wilhelm II had visited the home of Bismarck, whom he had driven out of Berlin. Looking at the entourage of Junker "country bumpkins" that formed Wilhelm II's officer corps, Bismarck had given him one last warning: "Your Majesty, so long as you have this officer corps, you can do as you like. But when this is no longer the case, it will be quite different."

Wilhelm II had clearly not taken to heart the advice of the old statesman who possessed an insight into all of Germany. One wonders if, when he was forced to flee Germany after being abandoned by the Junker officer corps, he ever recalled that meeting on that afternoon.

And in 1940, less than thirty years after 1911, Germany's "Little Mustache" Chancellor would have to spend immense effort fighting the Junker officer corps just to get a strategic plan for invading France approved. Even after the plan was formulated, the defeatism spreading through the German Junker officer corps made him deeply regret that his control and purging of them had not been thorough enough.

Even the British and French, in their summaries of World War II, had to admit that before the Little Mustache could achieve victory on the battlefield, he first had to achieve victory in the struggle against his own generals.

Therefore, compared to his predecessors and successors, Colonel Hänel had no need for shame; he had indeed held out until the end. Of course, in Hänel's heart, exactly what proportion of his shame was occupied by the fact that he was surrendering to the Chinese was indeed a question worth exploring.

As the representative of the victors, Pu Guanshui, Deputy Commander of the Shandong Military Region, was not overly excited by the victory. During the pre-war military meetings, Chen Ke had emphasized in the plan that after taking Qingdao, they must hold it. It was not just about a fortress or territory; they had to preserve the factories the Germans had painstakingly established there.

If nothing else, the Sifang Locomotive Works, famous in the 21st century, owed its existence to the Germans. Between 1900 and 1910, Germany had built a cluster of factories in Qingdao that became the cornerstone of its early industrial development. While constructing the Jiaozhou-Jinan Railway, Germany began work on the Sifang Railway Works in October 1900. It was an institution under the German-Chinese Shandong Railway Company, with a total investment of 1.587 million marks, becoming the third railway locomotive and rolling stock factory to appear in China after those in Tangshan and Dalian. The Sifang Railway Works was located near the Sifang Railway Station in Sifang Village, covering a construction area of over 10,000 square meters and employing over 400 workers. It was basically completed in 1902. At the time, its main equipment included 215 units such as electric motors, generators, steam engines, hydraulic presses, cranes, boilers, forging furnaces, iron-smelting furnaces, steam hammers, and various lathes and coal transport carts. After trial production in 1903, it undertook the assembly and repair of all locomotives and rolling stock for the Jiaozhou-Jinan Railway. The Germans shipped steam locomotive components from their homeland to be assembled at the factory, and by 1914, a cumulative total of 1,148 locomotives, passenger cars, and freight cars had been assembled and repaired. During the German occupation, this factory and the Qingdao Shipyard were the backbone industries of Qingdao.

Chen Ke had given a strict order: if they occupied Qingdao, they must find ways to preserve the factories. When the Germans surrendered, they had not destroyed the cannons. Pu Guanshui demanded that Colonel Hänel hand over all the firing parameter tables for the artillery and simultaneously moved to take control of the batteries.

During the offensive, the People's Party had made every effort to avoid the industrial zone, and the German artillery fire had not reached there. Now, almost the entire set of enterprises had fallen into the hands of the People's Party. As long as they could truly bring them under control, the People's Party could carry out the most thorough reverse-engineering of these factories. Moreover, the German engineers and technical personnel in the factories were a precious asset.

After ordering Colonel Hänel to be taken away, Pu Guanshui began preparations for war. To secure the valuable wealth of Qingdao, they had to withstand the impending attack from the German East Asia Squadron.

Pu Guanshui knew that this raid on Qingdao was a military gamble. If Chen Ke had not personally made the decision, the Military Commission would never have passed such a risky plan in such a short time. Even with Chen Ke's unerring operational planning, it was impossible to determine the subsequent actions of the German East Asia Squadron.

Would they desperately try to retake Qingdao? Or would they simply refuse to pay a huge price and turn their ships toward other ports? Pu Guanshui wanted to know Chen Ke's judgment on this more than anyone else. Therefore, upon receiving the German surrender request, he immediately sent a telegram to Chen Ke, requesting detailed instructions for the next phase of operations.

The joyful news of the capture of Qingdao also sparked a celebration within the Huaihai Provincial Committee. Chen Ke looked at Pu Guanshui's telegram with a smile. The telegram did not embellish the victory, but contained a simple sentence: "Our army has captured Qingdao. I sincerely request Chairman Chen to provide detailed instructions for the next steps and to inform us of the movements of the German fleet."

The movements of the German fleet... The smile on Chen Ke's face gradually faded. Even if the People's Party's land-based military operations were successful, it did not mean they could control the actions of the German Navy. Chen Ke truly hoped the German East Asia Squadron would be ambitious enough to aim for the complete recovery of Qingdao. If so, at least the Germans would not turn back to shell the Qingdao industrial zone.

However, Chen Ke was not at all certain whether the Germans would lose heart. Currently, Germany only had a few desolate islands left in the Pacific. Of course, those islands would become famous after World War II—for instance, Guam, a vital US naval base in the Pacific. In 1911, it belonged to the Germans. It was taken by Japan in WWI and by the US in WWII.

But such places could not build any naval base relying on their own resources. If the German forces lost their reason now, it would not be without cause.

But on second thought, Chen Ke was relieved. Since Germany was acting for the "interests of the Great Powers" this time, even if the Great Powers wanted to kick them while they were down, they would first have to restore this basic face. This was the first time in over sixty years that a foreign army had surrendered to a Chinese army on Chinese soil. Even if Germany abandoned its face, the Great Powers would still want to keep theirs.

Therefore, the Germans would not necessarily act out of desperation and completely destroy the Qingdao industrial zone by shelling it. Looking at Pu Guanshui's earnestly worded telegram, Chen Ke wanted to reply and tell him not to worry too much.

Yet, Chen Ke could not bring himself to issue such an order. The People's Party's advantage lay on land. Even the Yangtze River was but a "small ditch" on China's vast land. But when facing the ocean, Chen Ke still found that the experience he could draw upon was actually not much. At some point, the Huaihai Provincial Committee had fallen silent. The comrades saw Chen Ke's pensive look and did not know what had happened. No one dared to interrupt Chen Ke's train of thought; the celebration had come to a complete halt.

"Chairman Chen, what is it?" Shang Yuan finally asked.

"Pu Guanshui wants to know if the German Navy will return to Qingdao to shell the industrial zone. Before the war, we emphasized multiple times that the industrial zone must be captured intact. It seems Comrade Pu Guanshui has completed the task. Although I think it's unlikely the German forces will do so, concern breeds confusion. Qingdao's industry is quite important to us, and I dare not completely rule out this possibility," Chen Ke replied.

"Then can we transport this equipment to Xuzhou?" Shang Yuan's first thought was this.

"The difficulty of transporting it back is too great. Even if we dismantle the equipment, sea transport is no longer safe at all; at most, we can transport it to Jinan." Limited by railway transportation issues, Chen Ke was also quite helpless.

"Then dismantle it first anyway," Shang Yuan said.

"Moving an industrial center is very troublesome. Actually, I personally hope the war ends here," Chen Ke said slowly.

Seeing Chen Ke say this, the comrades had already guessed that he had a brand new vision of his own. And this vision was certainly not something they could have imagined.

On the Lianyungang front, Wu Xingchen received the telegram. Given that Qingdao had been captured, the campaign in Lianyungang entered its next phase, focusing on inflicting heavy casualties on the German infantry forces.

"Rocket artillery units, prepare!" A fierce smile appeared on Wu Xingchen's face. In Lianyungang, the Germans had relied on naval guns to begin building temporary fortifications. In the first phase of the military plan, they had to strike the enemy to prevent them from easily completing the temporary fortifications, while also giving the enemy the illusion that they had occupied Lianyungang. Wu Xingchen could be said to have racked his brains. Now that the second phase had begun, there was no longer any need for restraint. Small infantry detachments already lying in ambush on the perimeter immediately launched an attack on the German outposts.

The Germans had sent two outpost units, each with a platoon of troops, and established observation posts on two heights on the outskirts of Lianyungang. The day belonged to the Germans; with the support of naval guns, they could call for fire assistance at any time. Once night fell, the battlefield belonged to the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army. The troops would launch attacks on these outposts, taking them out under the cover of night using light machine guns and small-unit raids.

It wasn't just the troops attacking Qingdao who were tempered on the brutal battlefield of blood and fire. The troops gathered near Lianyungang had also undergone the test. The initial attack scale was a company, and casualties were heavy under the Germans' fierce shelling. The next day, the attack scale changed to a platoon, but they failed to successfully take the heights.

On the third day, the attacking force was still a platoon, but they attacked from three sides. One side used a raid to draw the enemy's fire, while small units from the other two directions launched a surprise rapid assault.

The Germans, after all, were not the Beiyang Army. They were quite well-prepared in their defense. Even when faced with multi-pronged attacks, they remained quite stubborn in their defense. Such attacks only managed to break into the German defensive perimeter but ultimately failed due to a lack of follow-up troops.

Too many troops wouldn't work, and too few wouldn't either. Besides multi-pronged attacks, there also had to be reserves. The Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army had been exposed to the infantry squad and platoon tactics taught by Chen Ke long ago. However, they had mostly fought large-scale battles under superior firepower. Facing German small units, the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army found that they truly had significant problems in this regard.

But there was no need to worry about this anymore. The troops moved the rockets to the front lines along pre-prepared communication trenches. After a dozen rounds, the once seemingly impregnable German outposts turned into a sea of fire.

Wu Xingchen burst into loud laughter. "You bastards finally have your day!"

The surrounding comrades also cheered. The German naval guns did return fire, but the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army was certainly not so foolish as to stay and cheer on the positions that had just been destroyed.

The troops bypassed the German naval gun attack zones, and the artillery soon reached pre-measured positions. Another twenty-some rockets went off, and the German temporary fortifications also turned into a sea of fire. Although the accuracy of the rockets was not high, they utilized a modular design where the warhead was just a matter of weight distribution. Be it explosive shells, incendiary shells, steel-ball shells, or the thermobaric shells that only existed on paper—the warhead design could be carried out completely independently.

For testing purposes, a mix of various warheads was used in this attack.

As soon as the German warships withdrew, the People's Party's medical experts would have ample research materials.